California water shortage

[ATCclears]

Report: Some Bay Area Communities Could Run Out Of Water Within 4 Months « CBS San Francisco

The other thing not being discussed much is the looming impact on crops/food coming out of California for the rest of the country.

Peter

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[Caveman Jim]

Aright you washingtonians & Oregonians lets do our part, again, FLUSH TWICE!!!!!

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Meanwhile our upcoming home site on the Olympic Peninsula has a spring and aquifer. Cali is truly cursed. You can't blame the Big Guy for this, He's just avenging His dispossessed children of their birthrights

 

[AMProducts]

A good chunk of my family are farmers/ranchers in northern california. If ya'll could flush some water down their way it would definitely be appreciated, as this is where a lot of food comes from. Unless eastern WA and OR want to start picking up the slack and growing garlic, tomatoes, rice, cotton, strawberries, oranges, lemons, etc it's time to think about puckering up and getting ready to do without these foods, or be prepared to pay more for them.

Last I checked, the same weather pattern that's keeping CA dry, is also greatly affecting the amount of snowpack on the cascades and there may be serious issues with hydro-electric power generation this summer.

<broken link removed>
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Don't forget to flush twice, at your peril.

 

[EZLivin]

...Last I checked, the same weather pattern that's keeping CA dry, is also greatly affecting the amount of snowpack on the cascades and there may be serious issues with hydro-electric power generation this summer...

Yes indeed. A couple of days ago I picked up another 500gal water storage tank to supplement the 600gal tank we already have. Wells may have some trouble around here this summer, but at least we will have a better reserve. Interesting - one does not generally associate water shortages and electrical shortages with the "wet side" of the mountains here in the Pacific Northwest. Might be different this year though!

 

[1990Turbo]

I have been saying for months now that if we dont get some rain and snow and some meaning a s//t ton we are heading for a drought this year. The Columbia river seems to be down to summer levels Mt Hood has barely any snow. Ski Bowl hasnt really opened yet unless you count man made snow. Could get ugly.

 

[Mephistopheles]

2013 Driest year on record in Eugene.

 

[Sgt Nambu]

Report: Some Bay Area Communities Could Run Out Of Water Within 4 Months « CBS San Francisco

The other thing not being discussed much is the looming impact on crops/food coming out of California for the rest of the country.

Peter

Gosh! If they diverted all of the water to agriculture it would solve so many problems!
I got a small pump so I can use bath water on parts of the the garden. Think I'm going to get a rain barrel for the front and add one for people water. I really think this could get ugly.

 

[2506]

The ripple effect of this drought is going to be big. Every acre that lays fallow costs not only the farmer, but the laborers, the truckers, packers, warehousers, and on and on. Produce prices are going to go up, so it hurts us the consumer. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

We grow a lot of our own produce and our new home will expand to a large hothouse and greenhouses. No water issues here and large food storages

 

[cookie]

China will be able to buy the forclosed land for pennies on the dollar.

 

[CoastRange57]

A good chunk of my family are farmers/ranchers in northern california. If ya'll could flush some water down their way it would definitely be appreciated, as this is where a lot of food comes from. Unless eastern WA and OR want to start picking up the slack and growing garlic, tomatoes, rice, cotton, strawberries, oranges, lemons, etc it's time to think about puckering up and getting ready to do without these foods, or be prepared to pay more for them.

Last time I checked California has been ripping off water from the Colorado River for the last 70 or so years, you would think they would have had enough to get them through a light year. And I do have experience farming in very Northern Coastal California.

Even their irrigation districts and infrastructure don't have enough capacity to take them through a dry year ? Several districts here in Oregon are concerned, but have 2 years capacity in their impoundments at any time.

I can grow suitable amounts of vegetables for our consumption, and I really would not care to eat CA grown vegetables with their culture methods and HUGE use of pesticides.

 

[cookie]

Last time I checked California has been ripping off water from the Colorado River for the last 70 or so years, you would think they would have had enough to get them through a light year. And I do have experience farming in very Northern Coastal California.

Even their irrigation districts and infrastructure don't have enough capacity to take them through a dry year ? Several districts here in Oregon are concerned, but have 2 years capacity in their impoundments at any time.

I can grow suitable amounts of vegetables for our consumption, and I really would not care to eat CA grown vegetables with their culture methods and HUGE use of pesticides.

And GMO food stocks.

 

[AMProducts]

Last time I checked California has been ripping off water from the Colorado River for the last 70 or so years, you would think they would have had enough to get them through a light year. And I do have experience farming in very Northern Coastal California.

Even their irrigation districts and infrastructure don't have enough capacity to take them through a dry year ? Several districts here in Oregon are concerned, but have 2 years capacity in their impoundments at any time.

I can grow suitable amounts of vegetables for our consumption, and I really would not care to eat CA grown vegetables with their culture methods and HUGE use of pesticides.

Southern california (los angeles specifically) pulls water from three sources... the colorado river aqueduct, the sacramento river aqueduct, and from the Owens valley. Most of the water above SF is either sent into the california aqueduct or used locally. However, the whole central valley south of sacramento is some of the state's most productive agricultural land, but there are no major rivers in this area except for the san joaquin and kern rivers, which are used mostly to water the cities in the central valley. Both of these rivers would naturally empty through the SF bay area.

Chances are if you eat vegetables that are US grown, they're from california. Even if you're not eating california vegetables, the low price you pay for locally grown is the result of the depression of price as the result of large productive farming somewhere else. If you're not already growing suitable amounts of vegetables, now might be a good time to start.

As far as the family farm/ranch goes, they're inland of the mendocino forest, which makes them dependent on the amount of snowfall and rainfall the mendocino gets.

This is roughly year 4 of the drought, it's been especially bad because the last two years have had very little rainfall. The first time I visited the ranch about 10 years ago, there was a large catchment basin on the property supported by a dam, the whole thing contained about 200 AC/ft and covered about 10 acres, and had three islands in it. After 4 years of drought, it now contains about 5 AC/ft, and you can walk to every island without getting your feet wet. This basin is only used for watering 200 head of free range cattle, the rest is lost to evaporation.

The big reason why a drought in california matters: it affects food prices, it may spawn further waves of refugees (namely illegal aliens looking for farm work), california is in the same neighborhood, and whether you want to or not, you should not be so busy celebrating your neighbors house burning that the fire spreads to yours. Water in the west is a very important issue, just because oregon and washington have enough water that they think they can take it for granted, doesn't mean it's so. Just like the people of the Owens valley who ignored thirsty neighbors to the south and paid dearly for it. You cannot ignore drought unless you're separated by long distances or bodies of water.

 

[kickstart my heart]

I don't give a flying F about Cali. Hate the political system, and I have a couple ex girlfriends (as well as a few bat sh*t crazy women I used to bang) who thank Christ decided to move there. If that whole state fell into the ocean you wouldn't see me shedding any tears. I blame all the bad drivers, passive aggressive bozos, and high cost of living on Californians moving up here.

 

[AMProducts]

I don't give a flying F about Cali. Hate the political system, and I have a couple ex girlfriends (as well as a few bat sh*t crazy women I used to bang) who thank Christ decided to move there. If that whole state fell into the ocean you wouldn't see me shedding any tears. I blame all the bad drivers, passive aggressive bozos, and high cost of living on Californians moving up here.

Did you miss the part where I said that was going to get worse once it all burns down. You could destroy the economy of WA in order to drive all the people out and lower your cost of living.

You could also cut off your nose to spite your face.

 

[ATCclears]

California DWR Cuts Allocations To Organizations Buying Water « CBS Sacramento

 

[oknow]

I'v seen more of the ground that is normally underwater in shasta lake. before long they will be able to have desert racing races there.

 

[The Heretic]

A good chunk of my family are farmers/ranchers in northern california. If ya'll could flush some water down their way it would definitely be appreciated, as this is where a lot of food comes from. Unless eastern WA and OR want to start picking up the slack and growing garlic, tomatoes, rice, cotton, strawberries, oranges, lemons, etc it's time to think about puckering up and getting ready to do without these foods, or be prepared to pay more for them.

My family used to grow strawberries and walnuts and filberts. Calif. strawberries and walnuts basically pushed our farm out of that business - when we sold about 10 years ago our farm only produced filberts. Now that land mostly produces filberts and some of it is now a vineyard. My fathers farm (sold) is now a nursery for landscaping plants (it used to produce wheat/barley/oats and then strawberries).

There is still quite a bit of strawberry and other berry acreage around here. But if you go into the stores you will only find strawberries from out of state. Now a lot of acreage has been converted to vineyards, some of it to apples.

IMO our strawberries are better - usually we have a wider variety and they taste better. But the typical consumer doesn't know quality, they only know price and availability.

I *know* our walnuts were better.

Problem was, Calif sold their produce for less and had it at times when we didn't, due to the better weather.

I grow garlic and tomatoes in my personal garden. Oranges and lemons can come from Florida, Mexico and some other places.

We are a net exporter of food and energy, so I am not too worried about needing food from California.

That said, I don't want California to go down the tubes, the problem is less about the rainfall/etc., and more about the increasing population and per capita water usage.

This is a problem all around the world - even in the Pacific Northwet. We are having a drier than normal winter (we had no flooding on the Tualatin this year, indeed, so far it has not even approached its banks - somewhat unusual in my remembrance), although it is far from a dustbowl up here, especially this side of the Cascades. Even with regular rainfall, the amount of water available per capita is decreasing simply because of population growth.

Prepare for it.

 

[mortar maggot]

What I have yet to figure out is that they (.gov water people) knew that there has been a drought for years and that this year was reaching a crises point.

So why wait until now to go into panic mode, they should have started some water saving things years ago.

I suppose management by crises.